


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by tealeavesandtrash



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Dave (Umbrella Academy) is Alive, Domestic Fluff, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, M/M, No Incest, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel, historical accuracy? don’t know her, klaus and dave manage gay adoption in the 1970s, klaus is a good dad and his siblings are shook, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2020-07-20 15:14:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19994302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealeavesandtrash/pseuds/tealeavesandtrash
Summary: 1968 had been a second chance for Klaus to start anew. He didn’t think he’d ever see his siblings again and he’d made peace with the idea of never getting to annoy Ben or Diego for another fifty years or so in exchange for a fresh start at life with Dave.What he didn’t expect was that one day they might come crashing in and start threatening the security of everything he’d built.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Whoop okay! This was 100% a self-indulgent excuse to combine some of my favorite AUs including but not limited to: Dave not dying, Klaus staying in the past, the other Hargreeves traveling back to find Klaus in said past, and Dave and Klaus being super domestic and amazing parents.  
> I also tried to scatter references to Dave being Jewish and teaching a bit of Yiddish to his kids - however, I don’t know a lot about Judaism so if I make mistakes pls let me know so I can fix it!! (or just any mistakes in general)

There were very few things Klaus missed about the future, but Ben was a big part of it. After almost thirty years of the two of them practically being joined at the hip - inseparable even by death - when Klaus had come to the realisation that Ben hadn’t traveled back in time with him, it felt like losing him all over again.

If there was anything tempting Klaus back to the future it was Ben. Six years on and he still caught himself glancing over expecting Ben to be standing there making a sarcastic comment or thinking he had seen Ben from the corner of his eye lounging on the sofa reading a book.

There were a few times that Klaus had considered using the briefcase – just to pop back to see Ben one last time and maybe invite him back to the past as well (and figure out if it was possible for ghosts to time travel as well) but he never did.

What if something happened to the briefcase and he couldn’t get back?

What if he ran Hazel and Cha-cha again and they actually killed him this time around?

What if the rest of his siblings didn’t want him at the academy because they thought he was still high and he ended up dying of exposure or got stabbed in a mugging while he slept on the streets again?

The risk was always too high, so instead, he kept the briefcase locked away in the attic away from any temptation or prying hands. Giving up on the idea of going back to the future meant giving up on seeing Ben for another fifty years, but it was a sacrifice Klaus knew he had to make.

Why would he go back to being a homeless junkie with no prospects, and where the only member of his family who actually gave half a shit about him was dead? Fate had thrown him a second chance at a new life, the opportunity to actually get clean, and to find someone who actually loved him ghosts and all. He couldn’t throw all that away.

If you had told Klaus six years ago that’d he’d settle down, go sober, and start a family in a little cabin in the mountains of upstate New York, he would have laughed in your face then asked for a hit of whatever you must have taken. But Ben, ever the optimist, would have taken you for your word because he never lost faith in Klaus. If Ben could see him now, Klaus knew he’d be happy for him, and the idea of that alone made Klaus swell with pride.

There were times he missed his other siblings as well - Diego had been there to drag him out of a few sticky situations and if he ever came across Klaus high as a kite and semi-conscious during one of his patrols, Diego always let him crash at his place. (Although Klaus would disappear as soon as he woke up to avoid the millionth “have you considered trying rehab again” chat, much to Ben's displeasure.)

He missed doing make-overs with Allison and listening to Vanya play the violin, he missed hanging out with Diego and Five. Hell, there were even a couple of occasions when he missed Luther and all the opportunities there were to wind him up.

But right now, the only thing Klaus missed about the future was morning lie-ins.

After a year in Vietnam, it had taken a long time for both him and Dave to adjust back to civilian life and a normal sleeping pattern without being on edge for the possibility of attack at any moment.

And then, just when things began settling down, Libby and Benji came into their lives.

Excluding the few times Dave’s sister had babysat the twins, Klaus couldn’t remember the last time that he hadn’t been woken up before the crack of dawn.

Right now, he could hear quiet giggling from the next bedroom and with a groan, he rolled over to bury his face in Dave’s chest. He loved his children to death but god, small children were exhausting work.

“Give ‘em ten minutes,” Dave murmured into Klaus’ hair.

Klaus hummed in thought. “Five,” he countered after a moment.

Dave shifted slightly and wrapped his arms around Klaus’ waist to draw him closer, “You’re on.”

Klaus just nuzzled closer in response, letting his fingers come up to gently trace patterns on Dave’s chest. Life was so blissfully mundane now – dozing softly in the early mornings, safe in his partner’s arms, listening to their children playing quietly next door. Klaus sometimes wondered what he did to deserve all this.

That peace and quiet lasted for a whole six minutes until their bedroom door swung open and one of the twins climbed on their bed with them. Libby wiggled her way in between her parents and began poking Klaus in the face until he acknowledged her.

“Okay, okay! I’m awake!” Klaus said with a laugh, pulling his daughter into a hug a press a kiss on her forehead as Libby giggled in delight.

“Where’s Benji?” Klaus asked once Libby’s laughter subsided and she’d settled into a comfortable position between the two of them.

“Playing moon landing,” Libby said as she took the edge of the duvet with her tiny fingers and began to play with it with a look of deep-set concentration.

“You don’t want to play with him?”

Libby shook her head defiantly, “I want breakfast.” She turned her attention from the duvet to look up at Klaus with her big brown eyes, “What’s for breakfast, daddy?”

“I don’t know, Pumpkin. You’ll have to ask tate.”

Libby immediately wriggled out of Klaus’ arms and started poking Dave, “Tate, what’s for breakfast?”

Dave laughed as caught Libby’s hand and pressed a kiss onto it. “What do you want for breakfast, babydoll?”

“Waffles!”

“We had waffles yesterday, we can’t waffles twice in a row.”

Libby furrowed her brow in concentration for a moment before exclaiming, “Pancakes!”

Dave hummed in agreement before pulling himself out of bed. “Okay then, let’s go get Benji and make some pancakes,” He said as he scooped Libby up into his arms, leaving Klaus to carry on dozing for a little while longer.

Twenty minutes later and the house was full of the sweet scent of cooking pancakes. Klaus couldn’t help but smile at the reflection of how simple and domestic his life had become. The biggest problem he now faced in life was trying to get Libby and Benji to stop fighting - as opposed to trying not to get his or Dave’s brains blown out, or trying to guess which dumpster he should sleep behind to minimise the risk of stabbed, mugged, or raped.

  
He stretched and rolled out of bed. Their cat, Grapes, was basking in the morning sun on the windowsill and Klaus gave her a quick scratch on the head before grabbing a paisley shawl to throw around his shoulders (which he was pretty certain he had stolen from a girl at a festival in exchange for a spliff,) and dragging himself down the stairs to join the rest of the family and get in on the pancake action before they were all gone.

Dave was standing over the cooker, humming along to the radio as he cooked. Libby and Benji sat at the table, legs swinging the chairs that were still far too big for them and chattering to themselves. Klaus slipped behind Dave and wrapped his arms around in middle, pressing a kiss into his back.

Dave turned in Klaus' arms, bring his hands up to the other man’s face and capturing him in a soft kiss before pulling away just enough to murmur, “Morning, sunshine.”

Klaus grinned and leaned up for another kiss in response, before turning his attention over to the children. He pressed a kiss on the top of both of their heads as he made his way around the table to sat down opposite them.

“Daddy, can we go to the rocks today and play aliens?” Benji asked as he did so.

Space and aliens had become Benji’s latest obsession after Evie, Dave’s sister, had told the twins about the moon landing. Now that was all Benji wanted to do - reenact the moon landing with his and Libby’s toys, or go up to some boulders that were near the house and pretend it was the moon or some alien planet that needed to be explored.

Sometimes Klaus considered telling them stories about the Umbrella Academy - he knew that Benji would be absolutely blown away by the idea that his uncle actually lived on the moon. But he also knew that one Umbrella Academy story would lead to another and he wasn’t about to dredge all that trauma for storytime until the twins were old enough to properly comprehend the full gravity of the situation.

Libby groaned at her brother's idea, “we always play aliens! It’s boring!”

“It’s not boring! It’s cool!” Benji protested. Klaus just sighed and ran his hands down his face. Breakfast time was far too early to deal with one of the twin's squabbles.

“Okay! No pancakes for children who fight!” Dave announced as he placed a stack of pancakes in front of the two of them. The distraction worked a treat - the second the plates touched the table, Libby and Benji had forgotten their argument in favour of scoffing down breakfast.

This was the simplicity of Klaus’ life now - Dave would make breakfast; Klaus would be pretty-little-stay-at-home-mum and look after the kids and the cat while Dave was at work; they would all sit around the table for dinner; the twins would spend the evening playing and recounting all their adventures from the day to Dave; they’d get the twins ready for bed, tuck them in and read them a story; and finally Klaus and Dave would get a few hours to themselves before also turning in for the night.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

It was a perfect cycle they’d developed together and Klaus was determined that no one who wanted to would hurt his family - and there would be a good fair few if word got out about two gay men raising a family together, it was still the 1970s - but for now, Klaus was perfectly content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay well there we go, the first bit of creative writing I’ve done in like 7 years so idk how good it is lol so let me know what you think!
> 
> The POV will probably jump about from chapter to chapter, so if you have any particular requests let me know but I think I’m going to stick pretty heavily to Klaus/Dave/Ben. 
> 
> You’ll also notice me casually trying skirt around mentioning Libby and Benji’s ages bc it turns out I have no idea how children behave or what age I accidentally presented then as. You may also be wonder how on earth did Klaus and Dave even manage gay adoption in the 70s in the first place? I do have an answer! I’m going to try and work it in later, but I was worried about making the first chapter too heavy on backstory/exposition


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone’s favourite ghost is here and just wants to know what the hell is going on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy moly, the reception I got from the first chapter!! I did not expect so much love for it!! Seeing all your guys comments and kudos made me feel like the wholesome kermit meme! I just hope the rest of it lives up to your expectations aha

The last time Ben had seen Klaus, he was slumped over in a bus seat, clutching onto the briefcase he’d grabbed for dear life. “We should go back to the academy, let everyone know you’re okay,” Ben said, “or at least find out if that cop is alright.”

Klaus shrugged him off, instead opting to fiddle about with the lock on the case. “What’s the point Benny-dear? ‘s not like they bothered trying to help me.”

“That’s bullshit! That cop knew Diego, he’s obviously looking for you,” Ben cut in.

Klaus just ignored him and began muttered about the possible contents of the case. Ben huffed and glared out the window. He was annoyed at their other siblings more than anything else. Sure Klaus was stubborn as hell and a pain in the ass sometimes, but he had just spent twenty-four hours getting tortured – the least the others could have done was hurry up with the rescue mission.

“Before you go get wasted again can we at least-” but before he could finish the sentence there was a flash and Ben turned to find Klaus gone.

The thing about Klaus was that he was like a beacon to the dead – no matter how far Ben strayed from his side or how much Klaus tried to numb his powers, Ben could always feel a tug toward him. Except for now.

Well fuck.

Klaus was gone.

And not in the ‘oh-I-just-spotted-my-old-dealer-and-I-ran-off-to-go-meet-them’ way, but in the ‘I-actually-just-dropped-off-the-face-of-existence’ way. For the first time in thirteen years, Ben was completely alone and he had absolutely no idea where Klaus had disappeared to or how to help him.

It took the other Hargreeves siblings far too long to notice Klaus’ disappearance. Ben spent the next few days following them about. Sometimes he screamed and yelled at them, hoping that by some miracle they would suddenly notice him and actually do something. The rest of the time he spent trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Judging by a conversation between Luther and Five, the briefcase Klaus had nicked was a time travel device which meant the Klaus could literally be anywhere in time or space. It also meant that there really was absolutely nothing Ben could do to help him until he came back on his volition, unless something had happened which meant Klaus wasn't able to use briefcase again and was stuck forever.

There was also a horde of ghosts accumulating around Vanya’s new boyfriend which was becoming increasingly unsettling and although Allison had tried to help, she only ended up pushing Vanya further away. Ben had tried talking to the ghosts following Leonard around to try and figure out what was going on but they had just repeated the name ‘Harold Jenkins’ over and over.

It wasn’t until Luther called a family meeting that Diego finally suggested that they look for Klaus. Luther shot him down immediately, arguing that he was just getting high in some alley and wouldn't be any use to them anyway. Diego kicked off at that comment which almost started another fight, but then Five appeared with a clue about the apocalypse and the topic was quickly dropped in favour of finding and killing Harold Jenkins.

None of them mentioned Klaus again until the world was quite literally crumbling at their feet. Ben hovered behind his five remaining siblings while Five formulated an escape plan. “I can use my ability to take us back in time!” Five shouted as he grabbed Allison and Diego’s hands. Luther grabbed Vanya’s limp body and joined the circle.

“What about Klaus?” Diego yelled above the thundering sound of the building collapsing.

“We don’t have time. If we stay here any longer, we’ll all be vapourised!” 

Ben tried his best to latch himself onto Diego as a bright blue portal opened above their heads, desperately hoping it’d be enough to take him along with his siblings. Ben's last thought before they were engulfed by the light was that he hoped Klaus was managing alright without him.

When the blue light finally dissipated, Ben looked around to find that they were in the middle of a winding forest road. Luther and Diego stumbled to their feet, both looking as equally confused as Ben felt. Allison immediately rushed to check on Vanya who was still unconscious in Luther’s arms.

“Shit, Five’s out cold,” Diego said as he crouched over the oldest (or youngest?) sibling who was passed out on the ground.

Allison tapped her pad of paper to grab the other’s attention. ‘ _What do we do now?_ ’ Read the hastily scribbled note.

Diego looked over to Luther, “Well? What’s the plan, big guy?”

Luther glanced around again before speaking slowly. “It looks late. We should find shelter and figure out where we are.”

“So we sit and wait?”

 _‘They might be hurt,'_ Allison added.

Luther nodded at Allison, “We walk and if we don’t find a town before it gets dark, we set up camp for the night.”

“Fantastic,” Diego muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm but he made no attempt to argue. Instead, he picked up Five in a fireman’s lift and starting marching off down the road, Allison and Luther in tow with Vanya

Normally Ben would jump ahead to scout out the best route, but considering his siblings couldn’t listen to his advice even if he wanted to give it to them, he didn’t bother and wandered alongside them instead. One thing he’d realised over the past few days was how boring it was to be a ghost without Klaus. He missed being able to make jokes about people, or just hold a conversation with someone who could actually hear him. But as he followed behind his brothers and sisters, it was so abysmally quite that there weren’t even any other ghosts around for him to try and talk to.

 _Wait_.

There was a weird sensation in his chest, like something trying to pull him away from here. It felt oddly familiar and it took a minute for Ben to figure out why.

It felt like Klaus.

But it couldn’t be, could it?

What were the chances of Five accidentally teleporting them to the exact area Klaus had ended up after he opened the briefcase?

Before Ben could investigate, a car sped around the corner up ahead. It slowed as it drove past them before coming to a stop thirty feet or so behind them. The driver’s door swung open and a man stepped out. He was relatively tall and well built, but it was getting too dusky to make out many of his features. He took a few steps forward and Allison did the same, putting herself in a position to either talk to the man or start a fight if he was looking for trouble.

The man seemed to sense the group's collective distrust and held his hands up in mock surrender. “Are you folks alright? Do you need a ride somewhere?”

The siblings glanced at each other before Luther spoke up after a minute, “Where's the nearest town from here?”

“Maybe like 10 miles back that way, but I live just up the road. You're welcome to stay the night and I'll take you into town tomorrow morning,” he offered.

Allison glanced at Diego and Luther with a look that said ‘ _you think we can trust this guy?_ ’

“He’s no match for us. If he tries to fuck with us, we beat him up and take the car,” muttered Deigo quiet enough so the man couldn’t hear.

Allison rolled her eyes at the unnecessary threat but nodded along anyway.

It was an incredibly cramped car ride. Luther filled up the entire passenger side, while Diego and Allison were crammed in the back with Five and Vanya sandwiched in between them. Ben was stuck floating in the middle of them, not that it was an issue for the others - they couldn’t tell he was there - but Ben still hated it when living people walked through him. When it was just him and Klaus, sometimes Ben would forget that he was properly dead in the first place. People walking through him were stark reminders of his grim mortality.

Ben found the man - Dave as he had introduced himself - incredibly awkward and suspicious. At first, he seemed perfectly friendly and helpful but after a few minutes, he suddenly became very shifty. He clammed up the second they introduced themselves or asked about his family - stumbled over some vague explanation about his brother-in-law visiting with his children. Ben wanted to trust the guy, but he was acting very weirdly and Ben couldn't figure out why or what happened.

When they pulled up outside a little secluded log cabin, it got even worse. “If you guys want to hold back a minute, I’ll just go give them a heads up,” Dave said quickly as he jumped out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him.

“Well, he’s a weirdo. Definitely going to murder us,” muttered Diego. Allison reached over Five and Vanya to slap him with her notepad but didn’t shoot down his suspicions.

Ben followed Dave inside, not sure what to expect, but he was pleasantly surprised and maybe relieved to find a pretty normal looking family home. There were toys scattered a bit haphazardly across the floor and children’s drawings hanging up along the hallway - presumably from Dave's niece and nephew. He was a bit confused as to why Dave had been acting funny on the way over, nothing seemed suspicious or out of the ordinary at first glance. Maybe he just had a secret murder basement hidden away?

“Hey, darlin’?” Dave called as he walked down the hallway.

Okay, that made a bit more sense to Ben. ‘Darling’ wasn’t exactly a suitable nick-name for your brother-in-law, maybe he was just trying to cover up an affair?

“Yeah, babe?” a voice called back from the kitchen.

And _oh_.

That was Klaus’ voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't think I would get this chapter out so quickly, but here we are. I'm aiming for an update per week so let's see how long I can keep that going.
> 
> Also, when I wrote that bit with Dave saying the town 40 miles away I no point of reference for life rural north-east America. Idk if 40 miles seems an excessive distance to a town then let me know and I'll change it. I'd like this story about ghosts, time travel, and superpowers to be at least a little semi-realistic  
> (edit: thank you to everyone who commented about that last bit!! I've updated it now to something more realistic according to you guys lol)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This started off as one off-hand reference to Vietnam, but my lil gay heart couldn’t stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to the people who helped me with that lil bit in the last chapter! I’ve updated it and stuck a little thanks, but I figured I’d stick another one here as well bc idk how many of you would see that  
> also thank for all your lovely comments in general!! I suck ass at replying but just know its bc I get too flustered to figure how to accurately write out how much they mean to me!!

Dave had always known Klaus was troubled. It was pretty obvious from the get-go, what with the drug addiction, nightmares, and physical scars which littered his body (although Dave would only find those later on while they were holed up in some shitty hotel room together.) But it had taken him a long time to try and piece together the story of Klaus Hargreeves’ life - for someone so extravagant and outlandish, Klaus could be incredibly secretive about his earlier life. It was something Dave had first picked up on back when they first met in Vietnam. Klaus had always been chatty; weaving fantastical tales about superheroes and time travel to the rest of their squad, but the minute anybody started talking about life back state-side he would go quiet and change the conversation if anyone asked him anything.

The first insight Dave got into Klaus’ past was less than a month into their service while they were preparing for a mission. Dave was already very agitated about Klaus - it was shaping up to be a pretty nasty firefight and Klaus was still the newbie and hadn't quite adjusted to military life (sometimes he acted as though he’d just completely skipped basics and wandering straight up to the front line.)

However Klaus, seemingly picking up on Dave’s unnerve, simply flung his arm around his shoulder and said cheerily, “You don’t have to worry about me Davey, daddy-dearest started training us for this when we were still in diapers.”

Those words had played on Dave’s mind throughout most of the mission, but when he tried to bring it up when he was alone with Klaus later, the other man just brushed it off and assured Dave it was nothing. 

Dave didn’t believe him.

The second time had been on a quiet evening on the outskirts of camp. It was very much in the early days of their relationship, back when they were still skirting around the topic with lingering glances and touches while neither of them was actually brave enough to make the first move.

“What do your tattoos mean?” Dave asked, tracing his fingers gingerly over the ‘GOODBYE’ inked onto his left palm.

Klaus shrugged, “I was super high and thought it would be hilarious, y'know with the whole ouija board and seance thing.”

Dave nodded along. Klaus had mentioned the ghosts quite a lot before, but it was only in recent weeks that he’d put two and two together and realised that they weren’t just figurative. 

“What about this one?” He asked, trailing his fingers up Klaus’ skin to meet the umbrella on his forearm.

“Sort of like a family crest I suppose.”

Dave could feel Klaus stiffen up slightly at the turn their conversation had taken. The last thing he wanted was to push the topic too far and have Klaus shut him out. “You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want it.” 

Klaus shook his head, “No, I don’t mind." There was a pause before he explained, "All of my siblings have one. Well, except for Vanya, but dad hated her so he never made her get one.”

“Your dad made you get it?”

Klaus nodded slightly, “Yeah. I ... we were thirteen.”

Dave’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you were kids? That’s so-”

“-it’s fine, don't worry about it” Klaus cut him off, and before Dave could get another word in, he was up on his feet and wandering back to the mess tent. “Come on," Klaus called back over his shoulder, "I wanna play O’Connor for some more smokes.” And that had been the end of the conversation.

It took them four months to finally get together, in some night club in Saigon during leave, when Dave had been too drunk to pull away after he brought his hand up to rest on Klaus’ cheek and too brave not to kiss him.

That night he lay awake with Klaus curled up tightly against his side, tracing his fingers over the other man's exposed skin. Klaus’ body was covered in scars which Dave had never fully noticed until now, like a fucked-up roadmap of trauma. Some of them had obvious stories - like the track marks in the crock of his elbows or the graze on his ribs from where a bullet had come a little too close for comfort. But then there was also an array of cuts and burns, there were some that looked less than a few months old but others that were so faded with age they were almost invisible in the dim light.

The idea that anyone would want to hurt Klaus made Dave’s stomach churn. As he pulled Klaus closer and pressed a gentle kiss onto his temple, Dave made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t let anyone else hurt Klaus like that ever again.

Those five days of R&R had been the best five days of Dave's life.

Five days hidden away in a cheap hotel room, just exploring each other's bodies.

Five days of freedom to just be themselves.

Five days where they were safe.

Five days of bliss.

Five days for Dave to realise that he was falling in love with Klaus Hargreeves.

It was another six more months until Dave to finally said those words out loud. They were hidden behind the transport vehicles under the cover of night, passing a joint between them and making idle conversation.

“My granddad had this old wood cabin up in the mountains, got it as soon as he came over from Europe,” Dave was explaining, “he left it to me in his will, but he passed away before I got cut off so there’s fuck all my family can do if they want it.”

Klaus was sitting in his lap, back pressed up against his chest and head lolled on Dave’s shoulder. He passed the joint back to Dave, who took a drag before continuing, “it’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but it's a nice little place I figured we can have just for us.”

Klaus froze at those words. “A place just for us?” he echoed back.

“I mean yeah, if you want to?" Dave stammered, suddenly nervous at the proposition. Was he moving too quickly? What if Klaus thought this was just some fling while they were both away? "I mean, I don’t want to pressure you or anything, if you don't want to-”

“-Of course _I_ want to!” interjected Klaus, squirming out of Dave's lap to look at him face on, “But this is _me_ we're talking about _._ I’m a fucking mess! I don't want you to get stuck with me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Klaus shrugged and looked down at his hands, picking at his nails the way he did whenever he got nervous. “I don’t know. I just figured I was the convenient option and when we got back you’d want to find someone with less ... issues,” he mumbled.

“Hey now,” Dave cupped Klaus’ face with his hand, gently tilting his chin up so their eyes met again. “I know there’s a lot to you and I know there’s a lot you haven’t told me, but that’s okay. We’ll figure out a way to deal with that together because I don't want to be anyone else, okay? I love you and I’m in it for the long haul.”

“You love me?” Klaus gaped.

“Well yeah I thought that was kinda obvious,” Dave said with a soft smile.

Klaus stared back, bright green eyes welling up with tears, “I love you too.”

Dave leaned in to capture Klaus' lips in a gentle kiss before pulling him into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around the other man’s shoulders. The half-smoked joint long forgotten on the floor as Dave held Klaus close enough to feel his shakey breaths resonate through his own chest.

“What’s wrong, darlin’?”

Klaus clung onto the back of Dave’s shirt like a lifeline. “No one’s ever said that to me before,” he whispered into Dave's shoulder.

“No one? What about your family?” Dave asked gently.

He shook his head. “Dad told us love was just a distraction,” he sniffled.

Those words weighed heavily on Dave’s mind. Sure, his parents hated him, but that was only after they found out he was gay _._ When he was growing up his mother used to tell him and his siblings how much she loved them every day.

“I hate your dad.”

Klaus let out a watery laugh, “I hate him too. If that makes you feel better, I stubbed a joint out in his ashes at his funeral.”

“Yeah it does,” Dave chuckled. “He was a dick and you didn’t deserve to be stuck with him for all those years." He planted a soft kiss on Klaus' shoulder before speaking with as much sincerity that he could muster, "you deserve all the love in the world.”

If you were to ask Evie, Dave had always been too kind for his own good, but for a long time he didn’t think that was possible. What was the worst thing that could possibly come out being too nice people? So, when Dave came across five people lost in the middle of nowhere, he hadn’t thought twice about offering to help them out - letting them stay one night wouldn’t do any harm. Him and Klaus had the ‘we’re not gay we’re just great friends’ act down and the chances of them knowing enough Yiddish to realise Benji and Libby also called him ‘dad’ were pretty slim.

The group seemed friendly enough, albeit a bit odd, but when they introduced themselves, Dave felt his blood ran cold. He didn’t know much about Klaus’ siblings, but he did know their names.

Luther, Deigo, Allison, Five, and Vanya. All of the other living Hargeeves were crammed into his car.

But that was impossible, right? After six years of complete radio silence from them, what were the chances that all five of them would turn up on their doorstep.

At least that’s what Dave told himself until he caught a glimpse of an umbrella tattoo peeking out from under one of their sleeves.

Well fuck.

For once he agreed with his sister. He was far too nice for his own good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is Evie? Will she ever make an appearance in this story or will I just continue to vague references about her?
> 
> When finished this chapter I realised that it had essentially turned into a one shot I’d had an idea for. Maybe I’ll come back later and rework/expand it and publish it as a one-shot
> 
> Anyway, I’m not sure when the next chapter will be up, it’s shaping up to a beast to write!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s this? Time for some plot progression?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well whoops, this took a lot longer to finish than I intended! I’m really nervous about posting this chapter, I wanted to do a good job and I ended up rewriting it loads. Honestly, I'm still not sure if I’m happy with it, but this is the only version I didn’t immediately hate when I reread it so that’s probably a good sign lol

Klaus had been having a very good day.

Libby and Benji had only had one minor squabble and they were now sat quietly drawing at the dining table while Klaus cooked dinner. On top of that, when they'd last been into the city, he’d stumbled upon ABBA’s first album which he had been playing on repeat ever since.

Everything in his life was going great.

“Hey, darlin’?” Dave’s muffled voice came from the hallway.

“Yeah, babe?” Klaus called back, fighting back a smile as he saw the way Libby and Benji perked up.

“Tate, look!” Benji shouted excitedly just as the kitchen door swung open and before either Klaus or Dave could say anything. “I drew the bear from the story you read,” he said proudly, holding up a piece of paper with a scribbled drawing in green and brown crayon on it.

“That looks really good!" Dave cooed, "I’ll have a proper look in a minute, I just need to talk to daddy first, okay?”

“I'm drawing that too but I'm not done so you can't look,” Libby added, only looking up briefly before turning back to her drawing.

With the twin's attention focused solely on their drawing again, Klaus turned to meet Dave’s gaze. His brow was furrowed and his hair was ruffled like he’d been running his hand through it the way he did when he was nervous. “Dave, what happened?”

Dave swallowed and took Klaus hands in his own. “I … I think your siblings are here,” he said slowly.

Klaus frowned, “that’s impossible.”

“I know, I know, but I was driving home and there was this group of people lost in the middle of nowhere so I figured they could stay here the night, but then they introduced themselves and if I’d have known before I wouldn’t have-”

“-Dave,” Klaus cut off his rambling, “it’s literally impossible for them to be here.” 

He wasn’t about it get into the logistics about why it wasn't possible - time travel was the only thing he'd never told Dave about. But even if his siblings had somehow all managed to time travel (let alone all be agreement about it) why out of all of time and space, would they decide to turn up on his doorstep?

“Luther, Deigo, Allison, Five, and Vanya Hargreeves,” Dave said as he let his thumb gently trace the edge of the umbrella symbol printed on his skin, “it was definitely them.”

Klaus let out a shaky breath.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite that impossible.

He couldn't wrap his head around why they would be here. If they came looking for him (which realistically, what were the chance of that?) Surely it would have been easier for them to find him in Vietnam where there had been a constant record of which unit he was in and where he was stationed?

And if that wasn't the case, then some superhero bullshit must have sent them here. And all that was about to come crashing in to wreck his life again.

But Klaus wasn't about to let that happen. He'd worked too hard for his siblings to come along and ruin it.

They could stay for one night, they would all have a nice catch-up, they’d probably have a go at him for whatever reason and accuse him of still being high. He’d make sure Libby and Benji kept out of their way as much as possible, and then they'd leave tomorrow morning to deal with whatever Umbrella Academy fuckery had sent them here in the first place.

This was fine, it was going to be absolutely fine.

He could deal with this.

Apparently, he’d been stuck inside his own internal monologue long enough for Dave to notice because suddenly Klaus felt himself get pulled into a tight hug. “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to spring them on you like this.”

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered into Dave’s chest.

“You don’t have to see them if you don’t want to. I’ll say you’re sick or something.”

Klaus shook his head, “no, I … I should probably see them.”

Dave pulled back ever so slightly to look him in the eye, “you sure?”

Klaus forced a weak smile, “how bad could it be?”

Dave didn’t seem to buy his faux confidence but didn’t say anything, instead cupping his face and pulling him a soft kiss. “I love you,” he whispered.

Klaus let himself melt into Dave’s touch. “I love you too.”

Dave gave his hand a light squeeze in a way that said _‘I’ll be right here if you need me_ ’ and Klaus let out a small smile in return. No matter what happened with his siblings, he knew Dave and the kids would always be right there waiting for him.

The kitchen door clicked shut behind him as Klaus let out an exasperated sigh, leaning back against it and running his hands down his face.

He could handle this for one day. Then everyone could go their own way - Klaus with the peace of mind that they wouldn’t come cannonballing back into his life with all the emotional baggage that came too, and them with the peace of mind that their deadbeat junkie brother would stay out their hair for good.

It was a win/win situation.

“Klaus, what the fuck?”

Klaus almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden and unmistakable sound of his brother's voice. His head snapped to find a very confused Ben Hargreeves standing at the other end of the hallway.

A wide grin broke out on Klaus’ face. Well, at least there was one good thing to come from this impromptu family reunion. “Benny-dear!” he practically cheered, "you have no idea how much I missed you!”

“Klaus seriously, what the hell is going on? One minute we’re on a bus, the next...” Ben just gestured widely around to make his point, _"this!_ Dave said those kids in there are yours!”

“Well yeah they are mine,” Klaus chuckled nervously, before quickly adding "and Dave’s! They’re both of ours.”

“I … _what?"_ Ben stared at him in a bewildered silence for a second, "how long have you been here?”

“Six years, give or take.”

 _“Six years?_ ” Ben echoed, jaw dropping.

Klaus nodded as a wave of guilt hit. He had never even said goodbye to Ben, just disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving his own brother all alone without ever even bothering to come back to explain everything and reassure him that it was all okay.

“I-I’m sorry. I missed you and I wanted to see you, I really did, but I … I couldn’t.”

There was beat silence and Klaus swallowed thickly. If things were going this badly with the one sibling who actually liked him, what hope did he have with the others?

“I understand,” Ben spoke softly after a moment.

Klaus cocked an eyebrow, “you do?”

“You never had a good enough reason to stay sober before, I’m glad you managed to find one even if you had to come all the way here.”

“You noticed?” although Klaus wasn’t sure why he was so surprised - if any of his siblings were going to pick on that, it was going to be Ben.

“Of course I noticed, I’m your brother.” Ben paused a moment before added with a smirk, “you don’t look like shit.”

Klaus snorted, “I _never_ look like shit.”

“I’m really proud of you,” Ben spoke with sincerity this time, and Klaus couldn’t help but flush with pride at those words. Sure Dave had said it a lot, but actually hear from his own brother, the only person who had actually been there at his side during the worst points of his life? It made Klaus feel giddy.

“But,” Ben interjected before things got too emotional (he was still a Hargreeves after all,) “the others are still outside and if you don’t let them in soon I think Diego might steal your car.”

Klaus sighed, running a hand through his hair, “yeah, yeah. I know.”

He couldn’t put this off forever. As much as he did love and miss his siblings, the idea that they were just outside the front door ready to bring god knows what chaos and danger into his family home was absolutely terrifying.

Klaus took a deep breath and rolled back his shoulders. “Well, here goes nothing,” he muttered to Ben as he stepped forward towards the door.

Klaus really wasn’t sure what to expect when he opened the front door, but he really shouldn’t have been surprised to find his three other brothers in the middle of an argument.

Five was pacing back and forth in front of the car and looked just about ready to pass out from exhaustion. “Maybe you could have asked where we are! The first rule of time travel is knowing where the hell you landed!” he ranted at the other two.

“Well excuse-fucking-us! It's not our fault no one gave us a briefing!” Diego yelled back from where he was sitting in the driver's seat. Yep, he was definitely about to hotwire it.

“We didn’t exactly have time-”

“Whose side are you on here?” Diego quickly bit back, cutting Luther off.

Klaus just stared at them for a minute, was he really about to invite this mess into his home? To meet his children?

But the sight of his sisters stopped those thoughts dead in their tracks. Vanya was passed out in the backseat with Allison huddled next to her, a bloody bandage wrapped around her neck.

Well fuck.

They really looked like they’d been through hell.

As much as the idea of letting his siblings run rampage through his life terrified him, Klaus could see the anxiety in Alison's expression, hear the panic in Five’s voice. Hell, he might even say there was a trace of fear in Luther's eyes as he kept glancing back to Allison and Vanya with unease.

They were terrified and at the end of the day, Klaus was still their brother. He couldn't just leave them to fend for themselves.

He took a deep breath, if he could deal with Libby and Benji's simultaneous toddler tantrums, he could deal with five emotionally stunted siblings.

“Mi Familia!” Klaus called out as he made his way over to them, throwing his hands up in the air with a signature twirl, finally grabbing their attention. “Fancy running into you guys all the way out here!”

The second those words left his mouth, a heavy silence dropped.

Klaus rocked on his heels trying to maintain his carefree facade as four pairs of eyes drilled into him. The atmosphere with thick and for a moment everything fell still, save for the gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze.

Luther was the first to break the initial shock. “Klaus, what the hell are you doing?” he hissed.

“Oh you know, ” Klause waved a hand around airily, “this and that, living life, as of about five minutes ago I was cooking a _killer_ beef bourguignon.”

“You’re the one who stole Hazel and Cha-cha’s briefcase," Five quickly deduced, "how’d you pull that one off?”

“I guess lady luck finally decided to throw me a break,” Klaus shrugged and tried to brush off the uncaring tone Five’s clinical analysis. Had they even figured out what had happened to him? Or did they just not care enough? The thought of them leaving him forgotten for so long made his stomach turn.

“And what? You used it as your personal travel agency to come to where exactly?”

“Oh right,” Klaus quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and flung his arms out again in an attempt to keep up a theatrical demeanor, “welcome to 1974!”

“1974?” Diego echoed, “what the hell are you doing in 1974?”

“Didn’t we just cover that? Stuff and things, just doing me," Klaus answered with a shrug. "Besides, shouldn't I be asking you lot that question?” 

“Trying to stop the end of the world, what else?” 

“And you brought all your apocalyptic schtick here? Fantastic.” Klaus didn’t bother trying to hide his biting tone. The last thing he wanted was the five of them coming into his house blabbering about the end of the world and scaring Libby and Benji.

“Well maybe if you’d been around to help, we wouldn’t have had to resort to this!” Five snapped.

“Sorry, Five-o! I’ve got more important things to worry about here,” he replied in an airly tone and a flick of his hand.

His blasé was clearly getting on Luther's nerves. “What’s more important than the apocalypse?” he retorted.

“Please! It’s fifty years away! I’ll worry about it then.”

“You’re planning on staying here?” hissed Five, “do you have any idea how much that would mess up the time continuum?”

“Like I said, more important things to worry about.”

“We’re your family. You can’t just bail on us because you feel like it!”

Klaus snorted, “yeah because you guys cared _so_ much about me before.”

After everything that had happened, Luther really had the audacity to make a comment like? All the memories of the times when they'd snitched on him to their father. All the times Ben had convinced him to reach out to them for help, just for them to turn their back on him. Hell, he got tortured and they couldn't be bothered to help. And somehow he was still the selfish one.

Diego at least had the decency to look a bit ashamed. “Klaus, it’s not like that-”

“-Yes it is!” Klaus shot back, all his pent up frustration bubbling over, “You guys treated me like shit for _years_ but the second I actually get my life together you come waltzing up and demand I start following all your little marching orders just like dad!” Diego opened his mouth to protest but Klaus didn’t stop, “I have a family here that actually cares about and I’m not going to abandon them just because you want me to play superheroes again!”

And with that, Klaus spun on his heel and stormed back into the house before the others could get a word in.

Dave was behind Libby and Benji, leaning over them to watch as the two continued to draw. Klaus felt himself relax at the mere sight of them. He slipped around the table and slotted himself into Dave’s side, wrapping his arms tightly around the others mans middle. 

“How’d it go?” Dave asked quietly, draping an arm around Kalus’ shoulders.

“Oh just fantastic!” he muttered.

Dave raised an eyebrow and gently nudged him, trying to coax an actual answer out.

Klaus let out a long sigh before elaborating, “I don’t know what I expected. They’re dealing with some pretty big stuff but they’re still the same. They haven’t changed a bit.”

“What sort of stuff?”

Klaus shifted slightly. “Oh you know, the usual,” he said vaguely.

He knew Dave was going to find out about everything sooner rather than later, and there was no way Klaus was going to let it come from his brothers or sisters.

“Listen, they might say some strange stuff, just … just don’t worry about it, I’ll explain it all later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I’m really sorry this took so long! I started a new job, then my laptop broke, then a bunch of stuff with my landlord kicked up, but I think I’m getting back into the rhythm of writing regularly again!!  
> When I first started thinking about this AU, this was the first scene I started planning and yet somehow it has still been the hardest to write lol  
> Also, in case anyone's curious, the bear and the story Benji mentions is Corduroy. My granddad used to read it to me when I was little and I was super stoked when I realised its publication date fitted in with this. (I may have cried a little bit googling it bc oofff nostalgia )


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow that weekly update thing went out the window pretty quickly whoops, but they chapters are getting a bit longer so thats something I guess. Anyway, here we go, reunion mark 2: family dinner edition

“What the hell does he think he’s doing?” Five hissed, finally breaking the silence that had fallen after Klaus had stormed off.

Diego couldn't respond, only stare in bewilderment trying to process what had just transpired.

They were in 1974, that was fair enough. Their plan had technically worked - the five of them had meant to travel back in time and landing in the 1970s was probably a lot better than turning up in the 1870s. Diego could at least partially wrap his head around that he was now standing forty-five years in the past.

But _Klaus?_ What the hell was he doing in 1974? And from the sounds of it, he’d decided to stick around for some time. 

Somehow, within the chaos of everything that had happened over the past week, Klaus had apparently managed to get himself transported to a different century, and just decided to hang around?

That was the bit that didn’t make any sense Diego.

Luther started speaking, but Diego didn’t pay any attention, instead, he stormed inside after Klaus. Something funny was going on with Klaus and he had to figure had happened.

“Klaus!” Diego yelled, bursting into the house after him. “What the fu-” but the words died on his tongue the second he entered the kitchen.

Sat at the table were two small children staring back at him with owlish gazes.

“Who are you?” the little boy asked.

Diego stared at him in silence for a moment, “who are _you_?”

“I asked first!” the kid pouted.

Diego turned to Klaus. “Who are they?” he asked again, pointed back at the children.

Klaus floated about the kitchen, grabbing bowls and plates from various cupboards, seemingly completely unfazed by Diego’s shock. “Well you’ve met Dave,” he said airily, “my husband,” he added with a soft smile.

Diego just blinked. 

Klaus.

Married.

Klaus Hargreeves, who had never held down a relationship longer than a couple of weeks, was married.

“And those are our kids, Libby and Benji.”

Diego was still reeling from the idea that Klaus was in a committed relationship, it took another minute for him to start processing that second the second truth bomb. “I’m sorry your _what?_ ” 

“What’s happening?” Luther asked as the others filed into the kitchen behind him.

“Who are they?” the little girl piped up.

Klaus paused a moment before speaking carefully, “they’re some old friends of mine.”

“Gee thanks,” Five muttered before glancing at the children, “who are the kids?”

“Libby and Benji, our children,” Klaus repeated.

Five just blinked at him in disbelief, “right ... ‘our’ as is you and who exactly?”

“Dave, obviously.”

 _“You_ have children?” 

“Yes geez Luther, keep up.”

“I thought you said it was 1974,” Five pointed out, apparently getting over the idea that _Klaus_ had children very quickly. “How is any of this legal?”

Klaus snorted, “laws are for narcs.”

“What’s a narc?” the little boy - Benji apparently - spoke up.

“Mean people who snitch to the police.” 

“That’s not a great lesson to be teaching children,” Luther muttered.

Klaus shot him a glare, “no one asked for your input on how to raise my kids.”

Diego glanced over at Dave, who was watching the scene unfold and looked almost as bewildered as Diego felt. “You know what,” Dave suddenly cut in before a full-scale argument could break out between Klaus and Luther, “why don’t we eat before the food gets cold and we can pick this up later.”

Klaus shot him in a thankful smile and slipped over to other man's side, whispering something to him that Diego couldn’t quite make.

Why, out of everything that had just unfolded in the past twenty-four, was this the strangest thing that had happened to him?

It was a tight squeeze to fit everyone around the table that was not designed to fit seven people plus Luther. Diego was sat crammed in between Allison and Luther, right opposite Libby and Benji. 

Klaus’ kids.

He still couldn’t wrap his head that idea. Klaus Hargreeves, who he had last seen snorting coke off a coffee table in their childhood home, was now apparently responsible for the upbringing of two tiny humans.

The possibility of Klaus accidentally knocking some random girl up was not surprising, what shocked Diego more was that it looked like he was doing a decent job raising them. 

They washed their hands before eating without being prompted. (Although Klaus had to pick them up to reach the sink which, if he wasn’t still completely dumbfounded by the notion that it was _Klaus_ and _children,_ Diego might describe as being the tiniest bit adorable.) They said thank you when Dave put a bowl of stew down in front of them and waited for everyone else to sit down with their own food before they started eating.

They seemed nice, polite, and - for people connected to any of the Hargreeves - surprisingly well-adjusted and, well, normal.

The two of them were completely oblivious to the tone of the room, giggling quietly amongst themselves and occasionally glancing up at Diego or one of the other siblings with curiosity. Everyone else sat in an uncomfortable silence, no one being quite sure what to say about the situation they found themselves in.

The only time they seemed to pay any attention was when Diego spotted a small black cat starting at them with big green eyes from the kitchen door and Benji informed him that it was Grapes.

He had to forcibly stop him from groaning at the name. Although it could be worse, there used to be a stray dog that hung around near the Academy when they were kids which Klaus nicknamed Sambuca. 

“So,” Dave was the first to try to initiate a conversation after what felt like forever, ”how long are you folks in the area?”

Five shrugged, “however long it takes us to figure out how to stop the apo-”

“-Nixon!” Klaus suddenly cut in, grabbing the attention of the room with his sudden outburst. “I mean, when are they going to hurry and impeach that guy, right?” he added after a moment with a nervous chuckle.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Why are they putting the president in a peach?”

Five and Libby both spoke up at the same time.

“It's a fancy word for happens when the president does something really naughty,” Dave explained to her, ignoring Five’s comment.

“They put him in a peach?” Benji asked, “why doesn’t he just eat it and escape?”

Libby gasped with sudden realisation. “It’s poisoned!” she whispered.

And damn it, Diego was not a big fan of children. They were small and loud and got in the way, but that was one of the cutest things he’d seen.

Allison started writing something down and Diego peeked over her shoulder to read just before she flipped it around to show Klaus and Dave, _‘How did you two meet?’_

“While we were in ‘Nam.”

“Vietnam?” Deigo's first thought was how on earth Klaus managed to afford a holiday to Vietnam considering he used to spend every spare cent on either drugs or waffles.

Dave nodded, not seemed to sense everyone else’s confusion, “yeah he got shipped in at the start of my second tour.”

 _“_ Wait you mean Vietnam as in _the Vietnam War?_ ” Diego repeated in disbelief at the words he was hearing. Klaus, the anti-establishment pacifist hippie, fought in the Vietnamese War.

“Hell yeah! 173rd, baby!” Klaus exclaimed proudly, pulled up his sleeve to show off a tattoo of a skull with ‘Sky Soldiers’ printed boldly above it.

 _“You_ fought in the Vietnam War?” Luther scoffed.

Diego watched Dave bristle at that comment, “wait, you really didn’t know he enlisted?”

“It’s not that big of a deal!” Klaus quickly cut in.

“Yes, it is,” Dave corrected, glowering at Luther.

“In our defence, we literally saw him a few days ago,” Luther protested.

Dave raised an eyebrow confusion before Klaus quickly jumped in. “Yes, it certainly does feel like it was only yesterday we were all hanging out and dancing on daddy’s grave,” he hummed whimsically, “but flies when your having fun.” The light tone of his words juxtaposed the sharp glare he shot he quickly shot the others, quickly shutting down the conversation.

Luther opened his mouth but a swift kick from Allison (which was subsequently dealt to Diego as well since he was stuck in the middle of them) quickly shut him up before the argument escalated and the rest of dinner went by in the same uncomfortable silence it started off in.

“Well Friday night is bathtime,” Klaus announced as soon as the meal was over, grabbing the empty dishes and leaving them in a haphazard pile by the sink. “So you lot just hang out here and don’t break anything, ‘kay?” he added, quickly herding Dave and the children out of the room. 

A beat of silence passed, no one really sure what to say about the bizarre situation.

“Well, that was … interesting,” Diego spoke slowly.

“It’s insane,” Luther corrected, “what the hell does he think he’s playing at?”

 _‘He seems happy,’_ Allison added.

Diego ran his hands down his face. “He has children. Klaus has children. Klaus has actual human children,” he repeated, the idea still not fully settling in. ”Klaus has children and I’m an uncle.”

“You were already an uncle.”

“It doesn’t count if I never met them,” he defended, “no offence.”

Allison just gave a small shrug and offered an apologetic smile.

“Well not to rain on your parade, but Klaus didn’t exactly seem keen on us all being one big happy family,” Five added, “he didn’t once refer to us as his siblings.”

“Claire never met us but at least she knew we existed,” Luther muttered

“Yeah well if I had kids I wouldn't tell them they were related to an oaf like you either.”

Luther opened his mouth to argue but Allison just shot them both a glare and he backed down immediately. Given any other circumstance, Diego would probably make a joke about him being whipped, but instead, he just slumped back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest. 

Sometime over the past few days, Klaus somehow managed to get his ass sent forty-odd years into the past and decided he was better hanging out in an active warzone than trying to come back home. 

“He’s the oldest now,” Diego muttered under his breath. It felt weird to say it out loud. They were exactly the same age, but Diego always felt like Klaus was his little baby brother he needed to protect. Even when he ran away from home and Diego left to join the police, he always kept an ear out on the scanner just in case he needed to drag Klaus out of trouble. But now he was probably a good four years older than them at least (judging by Libby and Benji,) an actual war vet, and somehow the most put together out of the lot of them - not even Allison was able to hold down a relationship for more than a few years without it dissolving into constant court battles.

 _“I’m_ the oldest,"Five replied.

“Yeah, but you’re also the shortest.”

Five huffed but didn’t bother to retaliate.

Silence fell over the room again, save for the quiet sound of chatter and laughter that drifted down the stairs.

It was surreal.

“We need a plan for the apocalypse,” Five finally spoke again after a while.

“We need to work out how to stop Vanya.”

 _‘We need to HELP her,’_ Allison shoved the notepad in Luther’s direction, the word ‘help’ underlined several times. 

“We need Klaus,” Five added, “we’re tried to stop the apocalypse without him and look where it got us.”

Diego snorted, “that’s not going to happen.”

Five raised an eyebrow, “and why’s that?”

“Because look at this! You really think he’s going to give all this up to fuck about as the Umbrella Academy?”

“It’s the end of the world.”

“We’re his family.”

“Yeah, and what a great fucking family we are,” Diego shot back at Luther.

“We’re still family-”

“- _you_ locked Vanya up the first chance you got!”

“She’s dangerous!”

“She’s our sister,” Diego spat back, quickly followed by Allison who had the same thing scribbled down.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” Five spat.

“She hurt Allison!”

_‘It was my fault’_

Five let out an exasperated sigh, “we’re not going to be able to save the world if you keep arguing like children.”

“Well that settles it then,” Deigo muttered, “we’re doomed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, reunion dialogue was super hard to write, but this was more fun to write since I got to include Libby and Benji. I love them and I will die for them. But now that the bulk of the set up is done, it’s time to crack on with the family bonding!!  
> The alternative summary for this chapter is Diego being confused and a closeted softie


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's not dead! I started this with such high expectations to update regularly, look at us now. Guess I’ll see y’all in a month and a half rip :")  
> I also tried to make a playlist to get in the zone for writing this fic but it backfired and I started writing two new AUs instead whoops

If Klaus tried to ignore the nagging reminder in the back of his mind about his siblings waiting downstairs, then it was a relatively normal evening. Libby and Benji remained blissfully unaware of the full nature of the situation at hand and, although he could feel the occasional concerned glance from Dave, he tried not to dwell on the thought of the conversation he knew they were going to have to have later.

Bath time went about as smoothly as it ever it did - it began with a lot of splashing and playing which was cut short when someone got shampoo in their eyes and started crying. The rest of the evening was spent in the twin's room with Dave reading whichever books the kids thrust at him while Klaus tried to brush and braid Libby’s hair whenever she managed to sit still for long enough. (That was promptly followed by Benji demanding his hair also but put up in little pigtails so they could match.) The conversation, thankfully for Klaus, never strayed to their unexpected guests - the twins were far too preoccupied with picking out bedtime stories to think about them.

At least, that was the case until it was finally time for bed. 

“Daddy?” Libby asked as Klaus tucked her in, “can we play with your friends tomorrow?”

“I don’t know, pumpkin. They have a lot of work to do.”

“But it’s Saturday!" Benji protested, "you’re not supposed to work on Saturdays!” 

“Well, sometimes when you’re an adult you have very important work that you have to do on a Saturday.”

“That’s boring! I don’t wanna ever be a grownup!”

Klaus hummed in agreement. “It is pretty boring, but luckily you don’t have to worry about for a very long time, okay?” he said as he leaned over to whisper one last 'goodnight' and press a kiss onto each of their foreheads. Dave watched the scene unfold from the doorway with a fond smile. As Klaus approached, he reached out and intertwined their hands, flicking the light switch as they left and letting the room fall to the soft glow of the nightlight set in between Libby and Benji's beds once Klaus was done.

Ben was already waiting inside Dave and Klaus' bedroom, sat at the head of the bed reading whatever book had been left on the bedside table. “If you guys are gonna fuck let me know so I can leave,” he muttered, barely looking up from the book. 

Klaus shot him a glare that Dave didn’t see and flopped onto the bed, burying his face into the duvet. His stomach knotted anxiously as he quickly brainstormed all the possible ways to start the conversation. 

‘ _So I’m actually a time traveler from the 21st century and decided to stick around here because I thought you were super hot.’_

_‘Remember when we first met? I had just used a magical briefcase to escape some time-traveling assassins who were torturing me.’_

_‘Did you know, I won't be born for another fifteen years so technically you’re dating a foetus right now.'_

There was no way he was going to be able to spin it without sounding absolutely insane. Sure, he had meant to tell Dave at some point - he had told him everything else - but he had just ended up putting it off in the hopes that Dave would eventually figure it out for himself. 

“So,” Dave started slowly once the bedroom had clicked shut behind them. 

“So,” Klaus repeated, his voice muffled by the duvet.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” Dave asked softly, sitting on the edge of the mattress next to where Klaus was starfishing.

“Wait, he doesn’t know?” Ben asked, his head poking up to look at Klaus. 

Klaus lifted his head to shoot another glare at Ben for his rather unhelpful commentary. “Not everything,” he muttered at his brother before quickly turning his head up to face Dave. “Not you.”

Dave glanced over to the head of the bed. Klaus never liked to make a habit of talking to the ghosts, but it was something he couldn't avoid sometimes and by now Dave had gotten used to Klaus suddenly breaking out into a one-sided conversation with someone he couldn't see or hear. “Who else is here?”

“Ben,” Klaus explained. “You picked him up with the others.”

"Wait, as is your brother?"

"Yep,” he nodded, "it’s the whole Hargreeves clan under one roof." It was meant to come off as a light-hearted comment, but saying the words aloud made Klaus shudder. The last time all seven of them had been under one roof, things hadn't exactly gone great - and that was in the mansion, now they were cooped up in a little three-bed cabin.

Dave glanced over in the general direction Ben before giving a small awkward wave, “um, hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

Klaus looked back at his brother who blinked in surprise before giving a small wave back. Klaus grinned and rolled over, pulled himself up into a sitting position, “I think he likes you. Most people ignore him.”

“What was he saying?”

“He wanted to know how much you know. About me.”

“Which is?”

“Like 80%? There’re only like, two little things I haven’t told you.” 

“What are the other two things?” Dave prompted. 

Klaus shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to begin. “You know all that stuff I told you about my family and our abilities and the Umbrella Academy? All that’s true, but there are some little bits I didn't mention,” he explained before pausing for a moment in one final attempt to figure out the best way to explain everything. “None of the Umbrella Academy stuff happens until the 90s. As in the 1990s. In the future.”

Silence fell as Klaus quickly dropped his gaze to his hands, focusing on picking at his nails instead of braving a look at Dave's reaction. 

Ben spoke up before he did. “You didn't tell him you're from the future? That isn’t one little thing you forgot to mention! It’s like one of the top three things you should probably tell your partner!”

"Jeez, I don't know, maybe because I would sound crazy!"

"And telling him about seeing dead people didn't?"

”Yes, actually!”

“What do you mean that didn’t happen until the 1990s?” Dave asked before Ben could come up with a retort.

He fidgeted awkwardly, silently debated how to explain everything before speaking up again, “you know how all my siblings have freaky powers?” 

Dave nodded. 

“And Five’s deal is he can teleport?”

He nodded again. 

“Well, turns out he can also travel through time. We're from 2019.”

Dave just stared at him for a moment, blinking in confusion, “wait, _what?_ ”

“Don’t you think it was weird that you never heard about some eccentric billionaire adopting a bunch of superpowers children?”

Dave just shook his head, “I mean, I'm from a pretty small town, I just figured it never reached us.”

“Well, it didn’t reach you because we weren’t born until 1989.”

“You’re from the future?” Dave repeated. 

Klaus just nodded, finally glancing up to properly take in his reaction. Dave’s brow was furrowed in confusion, but Klaus hoped it was just from trying to wrap his head around the concept and not trying to work out whether or not Klaus had actually lost the plot.

“If you're from the future, why did you come here in the first place? Was there some Umbrella Academy mission or something?”

Klaus snorted at the idea of willingly signing up to more Academy bullshit, “I didn’t mean to come here in the first place, but I need a quick getaway and bam! Next thing I know I’m sitting in the middle of your tent.” 

“So you got stuck here?”

Klaus shrugged, "maybe, I never actually tried to get back.”

“I’m sorry you _what?”_ Ben suddenly interrupted, “you wound up in the _actual_ Vietnam War and didn’t even bother to try leaving?”

“Well everything happened very quickly! There was a lot going on and then I met Dave and you know, stuff happened!” Klaus whined back. 

“You joined the Vietnam war because you found a hot guy? Jesus Christ, Klaus.”

“Well, when you put it like that it makes me sound needy and desperate!”

Ben just huffed and rolled his eyes. Klaus turned back to Dave who was sat in stunned silence, trying to process everything he was saying. 

“All this time travel stuff it … it actually makes sense,” he said slowly after a moment. 

“How does _that_ make sense to him?”

“Wait it does?” Klaus echoed Ben's sentiments. 

“I mean you appeared out of nowhere, no documents, no uniform, no training,” Dave explained, "also you thought Nixon was already president." 

“I was only a few months off!" 

“Plus,” Dave added, nudging Klaus gently with his elbow, “I know you and I know when you're telling the truth. I believe you.”

Klaus blinked at the comment, letting the words sink in before he finally let himself relax. He shuffled even closer to Dave, leaning into his chest and resting his head on Dave’s shoulder. “Thank you for not thinking I’m crazy,” he murmured.

Dave hummed and wrapped his arms around Klaus's waist. “You’re really from the future,” he repeated. 

Klaus nodded. 

“Are there flying cars in the future?”

Klaus snorted and moved his head to look up at Dave, “no, but there are cars that drive can themselves and run on electricity instead of petrol.”

“Wait, are you serious?” He asked in disbelief, “you mean they can steer themselves and everything? And you can just plug them into a socket to power them up?”

Klaus shrugged, “I guess so, I've never actually seen one."

“Yes they do,” Ben confirmed.

Dave let out out a low whistle, “the future sounds wild.”

“Yeah but I’m pretty sure the world is ending soon which is kinda a bummer” Klaus added. “Well, soon in the future. Like fifty years from now, so not that soon for us.”

Dave blinked in disbelief. “The worlds ending? Does a massive nuclear war break out or something?”

Klaus just turned back to Ben expectantly, “you guys figure any of that out yet?”

Ben squirmed uncomfortably, finally putting the book down. “We know it happens on April 1st.”

“Oh sweet, I just missed it. What was it? Nukes? Meteors? Aliens?”

“Technically, it was us. We started it.”

Klaus snorted at that, “You guys did it? Wow, I bet Daddy-dear’s super proud of us now.” There was a blissful irony to it. Years of abuse from Reginald training them the save the world, only for the Umbrella Academy to be the ones to ruin it. Sure, the apocalypse was bad and should probably be stopped, but Klaus loved the idea of taking all of Reginald's life work and throwing it in a dumpster fire.

“Wait, do your siblings cause the end of the world?” Dave asked, “how on earth did they manage that?” 

Klaus glanced back between Dave and Ben, truth be told he was pretty excited to find out how badly they managed to fuck-up, if only to Lord it over them for a little bit. 

Ben looked almost as nervous as Klaus had felt when he had first stepped into the room. "Long story short, Vanya has some insanely powerful ability none of us knew about."

Klaus just stared at Ben.

That didn't make sense, Reginald would have never missed an opportunity to recruit another superpowered kid into the Academy and he had always loved to make a point about how Vanya never belonged in it. For their whole childhood Vanya had never been allowed to hang out with the rest of them too much because she was a distraction to their training and a liability on missions.

And, even if she did have some crazy powers, the idea that she would be the one to somehow start the apocalypse was insane. Vanya was the sweetest person ever, she wouldn't hurt a fly - Klaus was pretty certain that he'd managed to give her nightmares once by pouring salt on a slug in front of her. 

"Ben that's nuts. If Vanya had powers, she'd have part of the Umbrella Academy. There's no way Dad would've missed something like that." 

"Yeah, well, there’s some other stuff you missed out on. I think it’s best if the others explain the rest of it.”

Klaus sighed and rolled his eyes. “Really? You're going to make me wait to get the gossip from them?"

"There was a lot going on!" Ben defended, "I couldn't keep an eye on everyone at once and it's not like anyone bothered to keep me in the loop! I don't even know if I know the full story!"

”Are you just saying that to get me to talk to them?”

Ben shrugged, “partially.”

"Fine! Let’s get this over and done with,” Klaus muttered, swinging his legs off the bed. He grabbed Dave's hand and pulled him to his feet as well. “You ready for your first Hargreaves family meeting?”

Everyone had relocated to the living room when Klaus and Dave came back downstairs. “So!” Klaus announced with a clap as he entered the room. “The apocalypse. How did you guys manage to start it, how are you gonna stop it, and how long do I have to hang out with you?”

Luther glanced over to Dave, “this is a family matter.”

“Well it’s a good job we’re all family then, isn’t it,” Klaus shot back. That seemed to be enough to shut Luther up for now, which Klaus was thankful for. There was no way he was going to be able to endure this without Dave. 

“How much does he know?" Five asked, motioning to Dave.

"As much as I do."

Five eyed him with suspicion but seemed to relax after a second. “When exactly did you leave our time and come back here?"

Klaus shrugged, “like a day or two after your pals shot up the house? It was a bit of a blur to be honest."

Five nodded, "you didn't miss too much all things considered, but Vanya has powers. Some form of energy manipulation by the look of things which Dad clearly thought was too powerful to control.”

“Oooh sweet," Klaus cooed like he hadn't already found that out five minutes ago, although the fact that Reginald had actively hidden it from them all was news to him, the manipulative prick. 

“It’s not sweet, she starts the apocalypse,” Diego added. 

Klaus just shrugged, “good for her.”

“It’s not good for her, Klaus!” Luther argued, "she kills _everyone._ Mum, Pogo, she slit Allison's throat!” 

“So Vanya just randomly decided to go psycho and end the world?” Klaus snorted at Luther's comment, “yeah right. You guys must have _really_ pissed her off.”

 _'It's Harolds fault'_ Allison added, but Klaus didn't have time to ask who on earth he was before Luther piped up again.

“I know it’s hard to believe-“

“-it’s impossible to believe! It's Vanya!”

“More impossible that all of this?” Luther shot back. 

Klaus tensed at that comment, “what do you _all of this_?”

“I mean all of this! You haven’t been sober since we were kids! And in the space of five days, you suddenly want us to believe you’ve gone clean and are responsible enough to raise a family?”

Klaus felt himself flinch back at those words. If Luther has spoken to him like that six years ago than Klaus would have already bolted and be on the hunt for his next fix. 

But that wasn’t an option anymore, if Klaus had learnt anything over the past few years it was that he couldn’t run from his problems, and he didn’t want to run from them. He wasn’t about to let his siblings burst back into his life and walk all over him, not when he had Dave and the kids to think about as well. 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Dave snarled, stepping forward to position himself between Klaus and Luther before he could argue back.

“It not like we don’t believe him,” Diego tried to explain, “but you don’t know what he was like before.”

“No I think I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Dave shot back. There was a wave of anger in voice in his voice that Klaus hadn't heard in a long time. Maybe back in Vietnam when drunk GI Joe asshole took a nasty disliking to Klaus' general flamboyance and eccentricity. That night ended up in a bar fight, all three of them getting kicked out of the club, and said asshole getting a broken nose.

“We went through hell together. I’ve been there for him when he’s overdosed and had breakdowns, but unlike you lot, I actually cared enough to stick around and help him through it.”

A stunned silence fell over the room. Klaus reached out and grabbed Dave's hand. He felt Dave immediately relax a little at the contact, giving Klaus' hand a small squeeze of support. He glanced around the room at his siblings. Diego at least looked a little regretful, unlike Luther who looked ready to carry on the argument, probably the only reason he wasn't was the stern glare Allison shot him.

Five cleared his throat after a moment. “Well now that’s out of the way, can we focus on the matter at hand? We need to figure out how to stop the apocalypse.” 

“How about this time we don't lock up our own sisters?” Diego snapped, throwing Luther a quick glare. 

“I’m sorry you did _what?”_ Klaus stared at Luther in disbelief, that was something else Ben had failed to mention. “Well, no fucking wonder Vanya freaked out!”

“It was the best solution given the situation.”

Diego snorted, “no it wasn’t. You and your stupid monkey brain just can’t handle anyone disagreeing with you.”

“What's already happened is done,” Five cut in before Luther could retaliate, “no matter how stupid that decision might have been, what’s important now is figuring out how we stop it from happening again. We need to work out a way for Vanya to control her powers and then we need to find a way to get back in one piece.”

It took a second for the full implication of that comment to hit Klaus. This wasn’t some quick fix pit stop, they’d be needing somewhere to stay. “So you guys are going to stick around for a while then?” He asked slowly. 

“Until she has better control over her abilities and I figure out a way to get us back without destroying the time continuum,” Five answered, “why, is that going to be a problem?”

Klaus huffed, it was a massive problem. It was going to be cramped and chaotic and there was no way he could stop Libby and Benji from getting tied up in the situation for that long. 

But if his siblings genuinely had no way to get back home safely, he couldn’t exactly kick them out onto the street - no matter how much he would enjoy turning the tables on them. 

He glanced at Dave to get a quick read of his thoughts on the situation. He shot Klaus a small shrug which could only mean one thing - _‘it's your call but you know it's the right thing to do._ ’

“Fine!” Klaus exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defeat, “but no one mentions the Academy to Libby and Benji or you all get kicked out, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Ben were alive he’d drive a Nissan Leaf and you can rip that from my cold dead hands. In an earlier draft, I had him go off on a bit of a rant about electric cars but it's important to me that you all still know about that headcanon  
> I currently have three potential endings lined up for this fic - one happy, slightly ambiguous without too much drama/angst; one that kinda plays off the original canon a bit more with a healthy dose of angst; and one full-on super depressing end that would be really interesting to explore but honestly I'm not sure I could stand emotional toil of actually writing.  
> Let me know what you think, I like the potential all three have but there might be a pretty significant twist in tone depending on which way it ends up going


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve made a couple of edits to some previous chapters so this should be a little less out of the blue in the grand scheme of things, but this story's been missing is a pet, so everyone meet Grapes that cat! She’s going to be pretty significant in a later plot point and no, there isn’t any reasoning at all behind the name and I refuse to take constructive criticism about it.
> 
> I didn't want to wait too long to post this chapter so I kinda rushed proofreading so apologies in advance for any typos/if it flows a bit weird in places! I'll try to give it another once over later but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging too long!

Their house wasn’t really big enough for an excessive number of guests, which had never really been an issue until now. There weren’t exactly very many people who knew about their … _unique_ living situation - just a handful of trusted war buddies and the hodgepodge group of friends they'd made on the New York gay scene - so apart from when Evie came up to visit, they didn’t have the opportunity host a lot.

It was a tight squeeze for everyone. Vanya and Allison had ended up sharing the small guest room while Klaus had collected up a pile of spare blankets and pillows, dumped them in the living room and announced that Luther, Deigo, and Five could fight over who got the sofas and who got the floor. 

It’s wasn’t an ideal set-up, but it worked for the short-term. Not that Dave had any idea about how long it needed to last, maybe a week or two? Five had gone on about staying until Vanya had control over her powers, but no one could really put a time scale on that. Dave didn’t have much of a clue as to what would go into getting to that point, but it had taken Klaus months to get to the point where he was managing to cope with the ghosts without turning to drugs.

If it was going to take that long with Vanya, maybe they could clear out the attic and use it as another spare bedroom? He knew Klaus wouldn’t object to forcing some of his siblings to sleep up there, and based on the stories he'd heard and the conversation early, Dave wasn’t exactly feeling completely sympathetic either.

He mulled over it as he got ready for bed. There really wasn’t much point trying to come up with a plan. He and Klaus had needed to take a one-day-at-a-time approach to life while they were in Vietnam and it was something that still stuck to both of them. Today was no exception, his whole life got flipped in a matter of hours. Klaus was from _the future,_ the world was legitimately ending, and he suddenly had six super-powered dysfunctional in-laws to cope with. If today had taught Dave anything then it was that there was no point trying to create a concrete plan because life was ready to throw a curveball at any moment.

Benji was standing in the hallway rubbing his eyes sleepily when Dave finished in the bathroom.

He crouching in front of him. “What’s wrong, monkey?” He asked softly. 

“‘m thirsty,” Benji mumbled.

“Yeah? Do you want a glass of milk?”

Benji just nodded and Dave scooped him up and made his way downstairs, careful not to jostle him too much and wake him up properly. 

When they got to the kitchen, he found Diego and Five rummaging through the cupboards and talking quietly amongst themselves. 

“Can I help you with anything?” Dave asked, alerting the two of them to his presence.

He was still slightly on edge about them but he wanted to try and at least give them the benefit of the doubt. At the end of the day, most of their issues stemmed from how much Reginald had fucked them up which Dave couldn’t blame them for - Klaus had been exactly the same when they first met so it would be kind of hypocritical to turn them away for the same reason.

Diego glanced over to them, “you got anything to drink in here?”

“There’s milk and juice in the fridge and tea and coffee in that cupboard,” Dave answered with a gesture to the cupboard next to the one Five was rifling through. He set Benji down on the counter and grabbed a glass and the milk from the fridge for him.

“I need something a bit stronger than a juice box,” Five muttered, “doesn’t Klaus have some-“

“No, he doesn’t, ” Dave quickly cut in, knowing exactly what he was about to ask for. They hadn’t had alcohol in the house since Klaus had first started trying to get clean. Dave had stopped drinking then as well, it wouldn't have been fair to constantly be waving temptation under his nose. 

Diego just raised an eyebrow, sharing a quick glance with Five.

Dave frowned, “why is it so hard for you to believe he’s sober?”

Diego shifted. “It’s just he’s so different, one minute he’s … well, _you know_. And suddenly _this,”_ he just gestured towards Dave and Benji, “he was rolling joints at the dinner table by the time we were twelve!”

Dave grimaced at the way Diego so casually brought up drugs in front of Benji, the only blessing being he was still half-asleep and too focused on his glass of milk to follow the conversation. “Neither of us said it was easy. It took a long time and sometimes it got ugly, but we got through it.”

“What about when he relapses?”

Dave fixed them both with a glare. “He hasn’t relapsed since before we had the kids,” he said sternly, “and _if_ he did then we’d deal with it together, same as everything else.

A heavy silence fell, save for Benji's quiet slurping. Dave kept his gaze fixed on both of them, almost daring either of them to argue back.

“Well,” Five finally spoke up after a moment, “I guess we’re having juice boxes then.”

Benji had dozed off again by the time they got back upstairs. Dave tucked him back into bed and gave him and Libby a quick kiss before finally heading to bed himself.

Klaus was already nestled up in bed gently scratching Grapes’ head while she pawed at the duvet. “Do you think this was a bad idea?” He asked as Dave slipped in next to him. 

Dave paused a moment, thinking back to the family meeting earlier and the conversation he'd just had downstairs. There was no denying that the Hargreeves family dynamic was, well, tense might be the nicest way of putting it. Not that it really come as a surprise to Dave. He hadn’t really known what to expect of Klaus’ siblings before today, but so far they seemed pretty on par with the stories Klaus had told him over the years. Except for maybe Allison and Vanya - even though Dave hadn’t met Vanya yet, they seemed a lot closer than what Klaus had always described. But then again maybe that had something to do with the whole apocalypse which was apparently a thing that was happening in the not so distant future. 

“I don't know yet. But what’s the worst that could happen from trying to help?” He said hopefully.

Klaus stopping playing with Grapes to stare at Dave. “The world explodes. Literally.”

“Okay but that only happened once, right? And isn't the whole point of them being here about not letting it happen again?”

“I think technically it might have happened twice now.”

“Third time's a charm?”

Klaus sighed and rolled over so they were facing each other. Grapes let out a disgruntled meow as she was disturbed from her spot on Klaus’ chest but quickly made herself at home at the foot of the bed instead. 

“How can you be so optimistic about this?”

“Well it only seems fair to at least try to help them out, and it seems they really need you.”

Klaus snorted, “no they don’t. What could I do, ask the ghosts to pretty please stop the world exploding?”

“Don’t say that.” They hadn’t had a conversation like this in a long time. It had been back during one of their rare nights in Saigon when Klaus had finally begun to open up and Dave had first seen all the self-doubt he hid under his care-free facade.

It broke Dave’s heart to see all that come back so quickly.

“You don’t understand what it was like,” Klaus huffed and went to turn away, but Dave quickly reached out and pulled him back. 

“No, I don’t know what it was like,” he said, wrapping his arms tightly around Klaus, “but I know you, and I know how much you’ve grown since then. Just because that was they things were like back then doesn’t mean it’s the same now. You’re strong and brave and smart and just because they don’t see it at the moment doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Klaus stared up at him with wide eyes.

Dave reached up to gently stroke his cheek before continuing, “besides, they tried to save the world without and look how well it turned out.”

Klaus buried his face into Dave’s chest. “You’re such a sap,” came a muffled reply. 

Dave pressed a kiss on the top of Klaus’ head, fingers gently playing with his dark curls. He didn't comment on the wetness he felt on his chest.

They lay like that for a while, Dave absentmindedly running his fingers through Klaus' hair and listening to his soft breathing.

“What’s the future like?” he asked quietly, unsure if Klaus had actually drifted off to sleep yet and not wanting to wake him he had. 

“Shit.”

Not asleep yet apparently. 

Dave snorted, “all of it?”

Klaus finally lifted his head up to properly look at Dave. “I mean you’d need to talk to Ben if you want proper politics, but I’m pretty sure Russia rigged the last election to make a KKK member the president.”

Dave frowned, trying to figure out what Klaus meant. “Wait, do they win?”

“No, that’s the thing, we win! The Berlin Wall gets pulled down and the Soviet Union collapses into like a hundred tiny countries but Russia is still fucking about with everyone else business!”

"Oh wow," Dave said slowly, trying to process Klaus' words. “Is there anything good in the future?”

Klaus paused a moment to think. “The internet is pretty cool.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s … I don’t even know how to describe it, but you know computers? In the future, we have tiny little ones that fit your pocket and do literally everything. Everyone has one and you can even talk to them and ask them to do stuff for you.”

“Sounds like something from Star Trek.”

Klaus hummed in agreement. "You know we could legally get married as well. And we could properly adopt Libby and Benji, get all the official paperwork and stuff with both our names on.”

Dave just blinked. He couldn't fathom the idea of being able to walk down the street holding Klaus' hand, let alone the idea of the government actually letting them get married or being able to send Libby and Benji to school without explaining why they could never talk about their family life. 

“We could send them to school and they go on to their heart's content about their two dads, but then some psycho decides to shoot up their elementary school!”

Dave was too caught up in his own thoughts, he almost missed Klaus’ second statement. “Wait, what? What do you mean by that?”

“Again if you want proper figures and stuff you’d need to ask Ben, but people just burst into schools and churches and malls and just open fire on everyone.”

“I .... what? I don’t understand … why?”

“Because the government is full of corrupt scumbags and we’re probably heading straight into another civil war.”

“I-I don’t get it…”

“There isn’t anything _to_ get. People are just super fucked up in the future.”

Dave just nodded slowly like he understood what Klaus was saying.

He didn’t.

He had no idea what to think about the future. Sure, apparently the government would let him marry the love of his life and they could both be the actual legal parents of their children, but then they would also let some psycho walk down the street and blow their brains out.

couldn't comprehend it. 

“Do you miss it?” He asked as while of pondering, trying to establish his own opinion.

“Miss what?”

“The future.”

“Nope.”

“Not even a little bit? You never wanted to go back and get your tiny pocket computer?”

Klaus actually laughed at that. “We just call them phones and I never had one longer than a week before pawning it off, so no I don’t want to go back. I have everything I want right here. Except for Ben, but he’s here now too so that doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

A grin broke out on Dave's face at that response. “Now who’s the sap?” He teased. 

Klaus rolled his eyes and turned onto his other side, but didn't pull away this time. Dave pressed a kiss onto the shoulder blade now exposed to him. “I love you,” he murmured quietly. 

Klaus wiggled even closer. “Love you too,” he whispered back. 

Libby and Benji were up at the crack of dawn as per usual. Most days Dave would get up at the same time as them, leaving Klaus to doze in bed for an extra twenty minutes. But this morning he was up the moment they first heard movement from the kids' bedroom. Dave had no doubt it had something to do with the rest of his family being here. Not that it seemed to be an issue, the house was still silent save for the twins' chatter and the distant snoring from downstairs.

Dave hadn't expected anyone else to be up, it was only 6 AM when the four of them traipsed downstairs for breakfast, but he was mildly surprised to find Vanya was standing in the middle of the kitchen, looking lost as she stared around the room in confusion.

”Vanya!” Klaus practically cheered, immediately dashing over and pulling her into a hug before she could draw back.

“Klaus? I - what? What’s going on? Where are we?” She stumbled over her words, staring over Klaus’ shoulder at Dave and the children in bewilderment.

“Oh right, you don’t know!” Klaus pulled back to introduce the rest of them, “this is Dave, these are our kids, and this our home. Also, it’s 1974.”

“And Grapes!” Libby added excitedly. 

“And Grapes is about somewhere,” Klaus repeated, “she’s not a big fan of strangers.”

Vanya stared at all of them in confusion for a moment. “How long was I out?” She asked quietly. 

“Only like a day, I think,” Klaus shrugged, “I just wound up here six years before Five magicked you lot back.”

Vanya nodded like she understood what he was going on about, but looked just as confused as before. She hovering about awkwardly as Libby and Benji quickly scrambled to their seats before also taking a seat. Klaus set a bowl of cereal in front of both the kids while Dave put the kettle on. 

“You know you're taking this a lot better than the others did,” Dave commented as he set three mugs of tea on the table.

“Somehow it isn’t the strangest thing that happened this week.”

“Oooh yeah, your snazzy powers! That’s so cool!”

Vanya shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not. It’s scary and confusing. I hurt Allison and Leonard and I … I think I started the apocalypse as well,” the last part trailed off into a mumble as she dropped her gaze, picking at her nails nervously.

“Why are you sad?” Benji piped up, staring intently at Vanya over his bowl of cereal.

She blinked at him for a moment before answering, “I ... I hurt my sister. Really badly.”

“Libby hurts me and she doesn’t get sad after.”

“You hurt me too!”

“Do not.”

“Do too!”

“You know they raise a valid point,” Klaus said, leaning over the table so Vanya could hear him over the children’s bickering. “You know how many times Diego accidentally stabbed me? Like, a lot.”

“I once ran into my little sister on my bike and broke her arm,” Dave added.

“Plus that Leonard-Harold-whoever guy was a prick who had it coming.”

Vanya opened her mouth to protest but Klaus kept on talking, “and for the record, I would argue that Luther started the apocalypse, not you.”

“I - how is it his fault?”

“Might be something to do with his stupid monkey brain,” Dave said, “Deigo’s words, not mine.”

Vanya let out a small laugh, “that sounds like Diego.”

Klaus nudged her with his elbow, “they’re not pissed at you if that what you're worried about.”

She glanced at him with uncertainty, “you're sure?” 

“Pinky promise.”

"They do seem like they want to help," Dave added. "I don't know how well it'll go, but it seems like their hearts are in the place."

Klaus nodded enthusiastically, “it’s not exactly our specialty but we are trying to be better.”

Vanya glanced at them both before dropping her gaze again, "I get it if you don't want me around. I might accidentally hurt someone."

"You're my sister Van, I trust you. I want you to stay."

A small smile crept onto Vanya's face, "okay. I trust you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your feedback about where you want the ending to go! I started drafting up a couple of scenes and I’m v excited to work on them properly when the time comes! I don't want to give too much away, but there is definitely going to be a sequel and potentially a prequel as well!
> 
> Also I feel like I keep name dropping Evie without any explanation about who she even is Is that bad writing? idk, but all will be explained in later chapters!  
> 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it finally time for some sibling bonding? It’s finally time for some sibling bonding!

It had taken Five most of Saturday to come up with a plan about what to do.

Jump back in time, teach Vanya how to control her powers, defeat what was left of the Commission, save the world, jump back to 2019. Maybe not in that exact order, but that had been the basic idea he’d had back in the Icarus Theatre. But now they actually had time to settle down and gather themselves, there were a lot more unexpected variables to take into consideration than Five had initially anticipated.

Namely the whole Klaus situation.

Not that Five held it against him. It was jarring to say the least, but if anything Five was pleasantly surprised to find out he had actually managed to sober up and settle down. Vanya’s book had never touched too heavily on Klaus, but his slow descent into addiction had never been a well-kept secret and Five hadn’t been surprised about his drastic spiral after Ben’s death. (The two of them had been almost inseparable growing up, it wasn't a shock to read about how badly Klaus took it.) That - along with the occasional anecdotes about Klaus randomly crashing at her flat when he was high as a kite and seemingly routine trips to rehab - had painted certain expectations in Five’s mind about Klaus which hadn’t been proven wrong when he managed to get back to 2019.

So seeing Klaus do a sudden 180 in life definitely took them all off guard, but Five was trying to focus on the positives rather than the new issues it flagged up - the first issue was the fact that Klaus had decided he needed to travel back in time _fifty years_ to sort his shit out. And as much had Klaus’ complete disregard for the time continuum pissed Five off, he was trying to find solace in the fact that if it really was _that_ much of an issue in the big picture, then the Commission would have already stepped in by now.

There was also the matter of the three apparent additions to Hargreeve's family to take into consideration. 

Five had no problem with Dave. He seemed like a decent enough guy and he apparently had Klaus’ best interests at heart, which Five was damn sure was more than could be said for most of Klaus’ previous hook-ups. From a practical standpoint, he also had military experience which meant he was trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat so if push came to shove he could probably handle himself against the Commission well enough to survive. 

What Five _did_ have a problem with was the children.

Well, ‘problem’ might be a harsh way to phrase it, but they were a liability and liabilities were dangerous. Apart from the fact they were basically pre-schoolers which meant they had the dangerous combination of absolutely no ability to defend themselves and enough curiosity to drive themselves towards danger, they also raised three further concerns for Five: 

One: Children were notoriously more difficult to predict than adults so calculating them into any equation was going to be significantly harder.

Two: They were going to be Klaus’ top priority, not helping the rest of them save the world. Again, Five didn’t hold it against him, Allison was exactly the same with Claire - but they were dealing the lives of 7.7 billion people. Five had somehow managed to convince Allison of the greater good, probably because Claire had been on the other side of the country and not running around under their feet, but he had a feeling it was going a bit more tricky with Klaus

Three: The real, physical danger. There was no doubt that at some point there was going to be another showdown with the Commission on the same scale as, if not larger than the Icarus Theatre incident. The five of them had barely made it out last time when they only had to think about themselves. Putting two small children in the playing field was not an option. The Commission could be tricky enough to predict on a good day, but now there was even more pressure on Five to anticipate what and when their next move would be for the sake of keeping those two out of the line of fire.

By Sunday morning Five had a solid plan in place. Or rather a theory that could turn into a plan provided he was correct in his calculations. Which he was most of the time, no matter what Delores said.

The overall arc of it was simple - all six of them learning to work together, trying to fix everything Reginald had done wrong. All of them had to learn to get along and trust each other in order to stop the apocalypse. But for now, Five only needed two of them.

“We need to talk,” Five announced as he appeared behind Klaus in a flash.

“Christ, Fivie!” Klaus jumped in shock, quickly spinning around to face him. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Five rolled his eyes at the pet name but didn’t comment. “Are you busy?”

Klaus glanced to the side, quick enough that Five almost missed it, before meeting his stern gaze again. 

“Why?” he asked cautiously.

“We need a chat. Me, you, and Vanya.” 

“Just us two? You don’t want to invite the whole gang?”

“Not yet. We don’t exactly have a great track record for family meetings.”

Klaus snorted. “Yeah, it’s not exactly our forte.”

Five hummed in agreement. He couldn’t remember a time when one of their family meetings had ended any other way than a fight breaking out - be that physical or otherwise. “That’s why we’re starting off small, so grab a coat. We need to go.”

“Wait, why do I need a coat? Where are we going?”

“Not far, just somewhere quiet without any distractions,” he explained briefly before jumping back downstairs to the kitchen to where the rest of their siblings were still gathered following breakfast. 

“Vanya, come on, let’s go.”

She just blinked at him for a moment, shooting a confused glance to Allison.

“Just Vanya,” Five quickly corrected as Allison made a move. “I only need her and Klaus for now.”

She faltered a moment, glaring slightly at Five before flopping back down in her chair.

“What are you doing?” Luther asked.

“Talking,” Five answered bluntly.

“Shouldn’t we all be going then?”

“No, this only relevant to Klaus and Vanya.”

“I’m with Luther on this one,” Diego butted in. “What the hell happened to working together as a family?”

“Well frankly it doesn’t concern you at this moment in time and I don’t need you two turning it into a fistfight,” he shot back.

Vanya cracked a small smile at that comment, but the other three kept up their stony-faced glowers. Five shrugged it off, there were more pressing matters at than their bruised egos. 

“Let’s go,” he said again without a second glance. "Klaus, come on!"

“Yeah yeah, gimme one second,” Klaus' voice drifted in from the next room.

Five jumped back into the hallway, glancing through the half-open door to see where he'd gotten to. He watched quietly as Klaus quickly said goodbye to Libby and Benji, both of whom were too invested in Looney Tunes to fully pay attention as Klaus planted a kiss on each of their heads. It was a surprisingly tender scene. In the past thirty-six hours, he still wasn’t used to seeing Klaus so soft. It was nice, seeing how far he’d come from beating himself up for an empty promise of twenty dollars.

Five tried to ignore the pit in his stomach about potentially jeopardising it.

“Alright Old Man, let’s get a wiggle on,” Klaus said, quickly pulling Five from his train of thought. He grabbed a battered leather jacket that been thrown over the banister - judging by the baggy fit, Five would hazard a guess that it was Dave’s.

Five just gestured to the today, “lead the way.”

“Anywhere particular you have in mind?”

He rolled his eyes, “I don’t live here, how would I know? Just somewhere where we can talk without being disturbed.”

“It’s so quiet out here,” Vanya murmured as they made their way along a beaten path through the woods.

Klaus hummed in agreement, “yeah, turns out when there aren’t many living people about there aren’t many dead ones either, which is excellent news for yours truly."

Five was only half paying attention to the conversation. Instead he zigzagged through the words, jumping about as he scouted out any useful sites or potential dangers.

“I thought I was meant to be the leader?” Klaus yelled to him as he reappeared with a flash about fifty feet up the path. 

“You're going to slow,” Five called back. Klaus just stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

They hadn’t ventured very far from the house, maybe a little over half a mile, but it put enough distance between them and the others so they wouldn’t be disturbed while he unveiled the hypothesis he’d been working on.

“Here’s good enough,” he announced, gesturing around to the large clearing they’d come across once the other two caught up.

Klaus flopped down dramatically, sitting cross-legged at the base of a tree while Vanya perched herself carefully on a log next to him. 

“It’s probably best if we stick to us three just for now. From a training perspective it makes the most sense,” Five continued as he stood in front of his siblings. “I have the scientific mindset to examine this from a logical, objective point of view. The root cause and trigger of your powers, how everything is going to influence the wider picture, that sort of thing. Klaus-“

“Will be your glamorous assistant?” He quickly cut in. 

A small smile broke out on Vanya's face but Five just sighed. _“No._ From an emotional standpoint, you and Vanya have the most in common in terms of your experience with your abilities. I want to tap into that and see if there are any connections or similarities we can build off.”

His brother and sister just blinked up at him in confusion. “We do?” Klaus asked, dumbfounded, “how’d you figure that one?”

“Why did you first start taking drugs?” Five cut straight to the point.

“Wow, that’s an awfully deep question for a Sunday morning.”

“Because of the ghosts.”

“Because I wanted to have a good time?” Klaus all but squeaked, squirming under Five’s scrutinising gaze.

“Because it was easier for you to get high than to learn how to control your powers,” he shot back.

Klaus glanced around nervously, mouth opening and closing for a moment under the heavy gaze of the rest of them. “How is this relevant? I thought this was supposed to be Vanya’s free therapy session!”

“It is,” Five answered bluntly. “Dad kept Vanya on medication to subdue her abilities, the same way you abused drugs. But now you're clean and at a stage where you've clearly developed some level of control over your powers. You need to help Vanya get to a stage where she is comfortable with her abilities without relying on medication to suppress them.” 

He paused a moment, waiting to see Klaus or Vanya had anything to add, but they both stared blankly back at him. Five took it as a good sign.

“So,” he continued, “how did you manage it?”

“I… I don’t know!” Kalus stammered, “I can’t control it! I just got better at ignoring them and they sorta fuck off when I don’t pay attention to them!”

“How did you manage to get that stage? Were there any specific physical or emotional triggers you can remember? Anything we might be able to relate to Vanya's powers.”

“I mean, I couldn’t have done it without Dave.”

“What did Dave do exactly?” Five prompted.

“It wasn’t anything specific, y’know? He’s just Dave! He just always makes me feel good.”

Five paused for a moment, pondering over Klaus’ words. “That does seem to suggest your abilities are also influenced by your emotions. You two might be more similar than I initially suspected,” he muttered to himself more than anyone else before turning back to Klaus. “How do you feel when you’re with him?”

A smirk broke out on his face. “Are you really asking me to gush about my husband? Because this starting to sound more like a sleepover than a training session.”

Five sighed, why did he get the feeling he was going to regret this? “Yes, I do.”

Klaus hummed, pausing a moment to think before finally speaking. “He … he makes me feel safe. Like, no matter how bad the ghosts used to get, I always knew he’d be there and he’d just talk for hours about anything to distract me. And it never felt like he wanted to get sober for _him,_ but I was doing it for me and because I wanted to be better for us. I don’t know... he just makes me feel better about myself, like I can do anything if he’s there. He… he makes me feel hopeful and I - I never felt like that before we met."

Silence lulled over as Klaus trailed off. Vanya and Five just stared at him as they took in the sudden and surprising sincerity of his words, and the somber implication of he’d been feeling before. 

“Plus, it’s super easy to ignore ghosts when you’re having mindblowing sex,” he added after a beat of silence, a wild grin breaking back out on his face.

And there was the regret - Five had the physically fight back a groan. “Moving swiftly on,” he muttered, turning to Vanya. “It’s probable your powers also stem from your emotions as well, or at least influenced by them.”

“H-how can you be so sure?” Vanya stammered.

“I’m not 100%, but it’s a solid hypothesis. You lashed out at Allison when you were angry at her, you blew up the Academy when you panicked, and you had the most control when you played at the theatre - presumably because playing relaxes you or makes you happy.” 

Vanya just nodded along dumbly. 

“Therefore,” Five continued, “your powers are probably controlled or at least influenced by your emotions. That and sound judging by what you actually did- most likely a mixture of the two. We need to find out what that balance is, so, do you remember anything from what happened?”

Vanya stared at Five blankly for a moment, trying to process what he had just said. “I, um… I felt scared and guilty. Helpless, I guess. It’s - it’s like, my meds used to dampen everything and then suddenly everything was really overwhelming. Like, everything felt ten times stronger than it did when I was on them.” 

Five nodded slowly, brows furrowed as he pondered over her words. “That does make sense, if your powers are related to your emotions then Dad very well may have put you on some form of emotions suppressant rather than lettings your powers develop. What about the Icarus Theatre? Do you remember anything from the concert or the fight?”

Vanya shook her head, “no, not really.” She paused a moment before continuing. “I do remember seeing Allison. I thought she’d come to watch me perform. That ... that made me feel good. For a moment I felt like wanting to stop.”

Five nodded along. This was good, so far everything seemed to be supporting his initial theory. “For the time being then, let's work from the hypothesis that your powers are based around sound and energy manipulation which is triggered or controlled by your emotions. We can probably look into some different techniques into helping you controlling them, but it’s probably going to rely quite heavily on all of us being able to come together and work as a team,” Five muttered, thinking aloud just as much as he talked to Vanya and Klaus.

“I’m sorry can we backtrack a second?” Klaus cut in, “are you genuinely suggesting we stop the apocalypse with the power of friendship?”

 _“No._ I'm suggesting we stop the apocalypse by learning to cooperate as a team and helping each other to develop and train together properly. We do everything that Dad did wrong.”

“Yeah, you say that but I’m getting major summer of love vibes from this plan. Not that that’s a bad thing, but we’re going to save the world with the power of love! Own it!”

“You were at the Summer of Love?” Vanya asked, eyes wide.

“Oh, I _wish!_ It was a bit before my time. I did do Woodstock though, now _that_ was a wild ride. You know people _actually_ died there?” Klaus gushed.

“Yes,” Five quickly interjected in an attempt to get the conversation back on track, but Klaus was already on a roll. 

“And there was like no food. I lived of electric kool-aid for four days straight!”

“How are you even alive right now?”

“You know, I actually don’t know. Maybe God just loves me. Or maybe they hate me and want to keep away,” Klaus shrugged.

"What was it like?" Vanya asked eagerly, shuffling slightly closer to Klaus. 

Five let out a quiet sigh before sitting down next to Vanya as Klaus quickly started speeling off about his escapades. It was very reminiscent of the early days of the Umbrella Academy, back before they started pushing each other away. Klaus had always a charismatic story-teller and Vanya used to hang off every word when he told her about there missions. But then Reginald had come along and driven a wedge them, forcing them all apart for the so-called sake of the Academy. 

There wasn’t much hope for Five getting the conversation back on track. But he supposed it was alright for now, they all deserved a break and Klaus was in his element reeling off stories that seemed to captivate Vanya. And if stopping the apocalypse really did depend on some good old-fashioned family bonding time, then what was the harm in them just hanging out as Klaus recounted tales from the six years they’d missed out on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I don't say this enough but holy moly I appreciate all your comments so much! I know I don't reply to them very often, but whenever I feel doubtful about my writing I go back a read them all and they make me feel so good <3 <3 <3
> 
> We are also now at the stage of the story which I had not planned out beforehand, I had the set up all done and the ending laid out, but the middle? Who knows! I’m just winging it now.  
> Speaking of the ending … I have seen some comments worried about the ending I have planned!! So minor spoiler alert I guess, avert your eyes if you want to remain surprised.  
> .  
> .  
>  ~~It will be a happy ending, everyone will survive, however, there may be some very close calls.~~


End file.
